Sharing Thoughts & Stitching With You

Friendships bloom amidst the threads of time, connecting all of us into a lovely tapestry for all time.  I am so thankful for each one of you, dear friends!

Though I have been terribly out of touch with all of you, I have thought of you every day, and treasure all of the wonderful things that you have written to me here.

Stitched last spring, I love this cheery little April Wordplay by Brenda Gervais, of 'With Thy Needle'.

The past few weeks have been filled with with it's bits of busyness. But, thankfully, in between those busy hours, I have also enjoyed stitching with my Wednesday morning stitching friends at our LNS.  We have such a wonderful time, stitching, chatting away and laughing until our sides hurt.  It is such wonderful medicine for the soul!

Although I can't claim any incredible progress on any one project, I have found many peaceful hours with a few things.

'Quaker Christmas II' is coming along.  I am almost finished stitching the top 3 sections, and will soon begin on the 4th page!


Last week, I received this wonderfully unique design from Anne, who had stitched this biscornu and then offered the design as part of a giveaway.  I love it!

I was so thrilled and started stitching it this week at my Stitching Group.  Thank you so much, Anne!

Typical of a stitcher, we always have another wonderful design, calling our name to start something new, right?   Because I adore Samplers, and would love to create a collection of some very special ones, I decided to start a new one.  
        

             'Spring Morning Sampler'
                      by Karen Kluba
                 Rosewood Manor
         

As you can see, I haven't made a lot of progress yet, but it is a beautiful design, and I am really looking forward to stitching it so much.  It calls for all DMC threads, but could be stitched in silks too.  

On a more somber note, this past week, our country has suffered  terrible terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon.  Our hearts go out with prayers for comfort and solace to all of the innocent victims and their families, especially to those who lost loved ones in this senseless and evil attack.  Last evening, we watched, on TV, as the second terrorist, was captured alive in Watertown, MA.  It was a tremendous relief for our country, and epecially for the residents in the towns around Boston, who were on 'Lock Down' for the past 24 hours.  

It made me think about so many people in other countries, around the world, like Israel, who live in terror every day, because they are threatened on every side by evil that threatens to take away their very lives and savage their countries.  We are so blessed in America, that we do not live under that fear every day of our lives.  But we must hold fast to our faith in God and live according to His  principles, the same principles, upon which our Founding Fathers created our great nation. 

This morning, this scripture was with one of my devotionals, and seemed so appropriate for those who have lived with fear, and those who are now living with fear.

'Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.  I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'  (Isaiah 41:10  NKJV)

'For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in the morning.' (Psalm 30:5)

Blessings for You!

I want to thank all of you, my dear friends, for your very thoughtful and caring messages to me, while I was sick.  They lifted my spirits so much, to receive them, and each day, I was a little better, and now I am feeling just fine!

This week was my first good week, and just in time for Holy Week and Easter Sunday preparations.  

I love putting out my favorite Easter decorations, and bunnies must indeed take their part!

"Easter Frills"

By

With Thy Needle & Thread

Shepherd's Bush

(Messages - Mine)

This week we celebrated Miss Ella's 3rd birthday, with a wonderful birthday party.  Emerson and Harrison were on hand to help celebrate with a few friends.

On the occasion of  Miss Ella's 3rd birthday, Grandma-ma made a quilt, with the motifs from Tasha Tudor's wonderful book,  

"A is for Annabelle, Grandmother's Doll".

These are just a few of the beautiful drawings from the book, which originally belonged to our daughter when she was a little girl.  

When Ella opened up her quilt, she exclaimed,
"Grandma-ma!  It's a story book quilt!"  After we read each lettered block to her, she then wanted to take it upstairs to her room to put it on her bed.  She jumped into her bed, laid her head down on the pillow and covered herself up with it.  I was so thrilled that she loved it so much!

And now, dear friends, I must close here, but with a few words of blessings for all of you, who will be celebrating Easter.

May you be blessed with the joy of your faith in our risen Lord,  this joyous and happy Easter Day!

God Bless You All.  

Love & Blessings!

Thoughts of You....

My thoughts have turned to all of you so many times, my very dear friends, these past few days, knowing that I have not been in touch with you for about two weeks now.  I can't tell you how much I have appreciated all of your many kind and thoughtful words of encouragement and prayers, for my parents and our family. 

We have had over 100 inches of snow here this winter!  It has been bitterly cold here on and off too, and poor little Meggie is tired of having to bundle up to go outside.  When she gets back inside, her little legs are shivering.  Spring can't come soon enough!

Believe it or not, even though I had the influenza vaccine in the fall, I came down with some sort of terrible upper respiratory infection, which is finally starting to subside.  I can't remember when I have been so weak and felt so ill.  The persistent cough was the worst, and I spent a week having to sleep in my recliner, sipping on water and sucking cough lozenges all night.  

Today I feel like I have turned a corner, thank heavens!  As you can imagine, my needle and thread were not moving very well for days, but here and there I managed to take a few stitches.

              

         LHN 'Little Sheep Virtues - Love'

Before the worst of  things took hold of me, I managed to complete another page of 'Quaker Christmas', which I've decided will be an ongoing wonderful project amidst some other wonderful designs that I want to stitch.

After all, it is lovely to keep alive, the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year long!

This afternoon, our daughter and her husband are having a little birthday party for our granddaughter, Ella, who will be turning 3 years old next week.  I am so happy to be feeling well enough now to go out, and it should be a wonderful time with all of the little ones.  Hope to show you some pictures next time!

This week, our daughter-in-law sent us this adorable picture of our little granddaughter,Kyleigh, now 10 months old, such a sweet, happy little girl.  They live a few thousand miles away from us, and we are just aching to cuddle and kiss this little one very soon!  

We might live far away from one another, but you are always in my thoughts, dear friends.  It is wonderful that our lives connect with one another through the threads that have bound us all together in friendship.

Blessings in Stitches & Friendship,

Snow, Snow, Snow.....

Another big snowstorm is raging up and down the Northeastern coast today.  It started yesterday with light snow showers off and on all day, and last night it began to pick up.  Today, we are literally blanketed with snow....about 16 inches+ here so far.  I had to shovel out a little path off of our back deck for poor little Meggie to go out this morning.  She looked bewildered, as if to say, "You've got to be kidding Mommy, really?"  She came in shaking cold, but is now all snuggly warm, cuddled up snug in her bed now.

I just couldn't resist stitching a little more on Quaker Christmas II this past week.  After all, with the snow outside, it really feels more like Christmas time, and it is going to take quite a while before I finish this beautiful sampler.  
                            
I am getting a little eager to start stitching on something new, and think that I may need to switch off between Quaker Christmas and a new project.  Haven't decided what my new piece will be yet, so stay tuned!

We were very blessed to spend some wonderful time, this past week with our two little grandsons, Emerson and Harrison. 

Emerson & Grandmama

Harrison & Daddy

On another note, I would like to ask for prayers for my elderly parents, William and Eleanor, who are 86 and 84 years old. Mother has very advanced Alzheimer's Disease, and Dad, who had a triple bypass and mild stroke, in the past 3-4 years, is alert, oriented and managing fairly well, with my youngest brother and his wife living with them.  However, in the past few weeks it has become very apparent that Mother will need more skilled care very soon than any of them are able to provide for her.  My sister, who lives about an hour and a half from them, is looking into Assisted Living Residences for them, close to where she lives.  She and I are working together to facilitate a move for them very soon, but we know that it will be a huge change for them, and especially for Mother, who is so easily upset by any change in her environment or daily routine.  We need so much prayer for them. 

Thank you, to so many of you, my very dear friends.  I know that many of you, too, have or are dealing with very similar circumstances in your own parents' lives.  It is not an easy thing, when the roles of parents and children change, and we need to take on the role of figuring out how to help them be willing to accept the good care that they now need. 

Forgive me for rambling on today, but thank you for listening and for caring, as I know you do.

Blessings to all of you!

Oh where have the days flown, so quickly past?  Every day, for the past few weeks, I have thought, 'today I will post on my blog and catch up with my blog reading'.  I have missed all of you, my dear friends, so much!

So much to share, but not sure where to begin.  This past weekend, my dear friend, Janet (no blog) and I attended the Stitcher's Hideaway Winter Retreat in Mystic, Connecticut, and had an absolutely marvelous time!  Can you tell that we didn't get a lot of sleep?  But oh, what fun!

We stitched our little hearts out and met so many other wonderful stitchers.  We talked and talked, and shared our joy of stitching with one another.  Oh, what great fun we had!  We can't wait until our next retreat!

I made some more progress on Quaker Christmas II, but wish that I had been able to accomplish more!  I have a long way to go on this beautiful sampler, and pray that it will be finished by next Christmas 2013!  Patience, patience......

Although I didn't have a chance to share my progress on the Heirloom Baby Sampler, I was delighted to finish stitching it last week, in time to take it to the framer's, just before we left for the retreat.  Here is a preview before framing.......

I am pleased with the way it looks.  It is a bit difficult to see the little beads scattered throughout the design, but I think that they add a nice touch.

We had more snow this past weekend, 3 snowstorms on top of one another, which added about 6 inches of rather heavy snow to our already heaped snowpiles here.  Other areas in the state did not get as much snow as we did here.

Meggie was all dressed up in her Leopard coat to go out in the cold weather.  She shivers and won't budge an inch if it is too cold outside.  Doesn't she look so cute?  She isn't spoiled:)

I decided that some nice homemade soup was needed, and decided to make a wonderful squash, spinach soup with roasted bits of sausage.   Hmmmmm... Perfect for a cold winter day!

Well, dear friends, as you can imagine, I have lots of catching up to do, reading about what all of you have been doing too.  

Thank you for all of your wonderful friendships, which mean so much to me.  It is always a blessing to share with you, and I love each and every sweet comment that you write.

Blessings in Stitches & Friendship!

Stitching & Snow Falling Again

Snow is falling, softly outside again...so peaceful and gentle as it touches the earth.  I love these quiet and peaceful wintry days.  Call me one of those crazy people who absolutely loves the snow!  I am a true snow bunny for sure!

There is nothing more peaceful on a snowy day, than to take up one's needle and thread and do a little stitching, right?  After much pondering about how I wanted to finish my very first design for 2013, I decided to create a hanging pillow with some lace that I had purchased a while ago, and some old buttons.

                                'Heaven & Nature Sing'
                                   By Brenda Gervais
                            With Thy Needle & Thread

                     (Picture This Plus 36 Count Linen)
                       Used Recommended Threads

                          Old Button Finish on Lace

Of course, after every finish, we are already dreaming about what the newest start will be!  I have had this precious baby sampler design in my stash for a very long time, just waiting for a sweet little someone so that I could stitch it.

This will be for the first granddaughter of a very dear friend.  The thread colors are so soft and delicate, and the design will be finished with tiny little seed beads.  It is difficult to read the sweet sentiment in this picture, but I will save that for you to see when it is stitched.

Here is my progress today so far....

The thread is really a very soft pale green, even though it looks rather a gray color here.

I have just baked a dozen corn muffins, complete with little bits of corn inside of them, and they are cooling.  They will be the perfect accompaniment to some vegetable beef soup that I made for dinner tonight.

They smell so yummy that I am almost tempted to have one with my tea right now!  In fact, that sounds like a wonderful idea!  

Well, dear friends, I wish that you could drop over to share a muffin and some tea with me, and we could sit a while and stitch and watch the snow gently falling.  What a lovely thought.....

I think of you so often, and always look forward to the times that we share our lives, our stitching, and the times of our lives together.  It is a rare and special gift that our lives continue to weave with one another, through the threads that bind us all together.

Blessings & Hugs!

A New Day and A New Snowfall....

Hello again, dear friends:)  I apologise for my rather dreary post yesterday.  This morning we awoke to the most beautiful, soft powdery snow falling ever so gently, covering everything with a blanket of snow.  I am one of those girls who absolutely loves the snow, having grown up in 'Snow Country'.  The fir trees all look so lovely covered with snow today, and I am absolutely loving this beautiful day!

Thank you for all of your sweet notes yesterday.  Just the 'pick me up' that I needed, to hear from you.  I was supposed to go to my Stitching Group this morning, but my stitching friend, Bev and I decided that the roads were not safe enough to venture out.  Oh, how I miss being with all of the girls though. We always have such fun together on Wednesday mornings, stitching and chatting away.

Decisions, decisions......so many wonder designs in my stash calling me to 'stitch me, stitch me'.... I finally settled on this one for my first project for 2013.

                             'Heaven and Nature Sing'
                                    by Brenda Gervais
                          With Thy Needle and Thread

                                 Love these snowflakes!

Yesterday, much to my surprise, a wonderful package, full of goodies arrived in my mailbox from Chris .  

Each one of these goodies, was beautifully wrapped in gold paper.  I absolutely love the wonderful commemorative pillow, that Chris stitched, in honor of the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  There are even 3 commemorative porcelain thimbles for the Queen's Golden Jubilee!  Thank you so very much, Chris!  How kind of you!

Our  little grandson, Harrison, celebrated his First Birthday with us last weekend.  He was a bit overwhelmed by all of the fuss being made over him, as we all sang 'Happy Birthday'to him.

Let's blow out the One Year Old Birthday candle!

Harrison sampling the cake, decided that it tasted very yummy, indeed!

Emerson decided that it would be fun to wear TWO birthday hats to celebrate the occasion.  Oh what fun!

Well, dear friends, as you can see, we have been having a lot of fun recently with our grandsons.  Next week we will be celebrating Emerson's 3rd birthday. More fun to come!

It is wonderful sharing with all of you, my very special friends.  Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, which mean so much to me.  I am so grateful that our lives continue to 'cross in stitches' with one another in friendship!

Blessings!

Hello dear friends!  I must admit that I have missed my special times with you over these past weeks.  Where, oh where does time go so quickly?

Since we took our Christmas tree and decorations down last week, everything looks so bare. 

THE BLESSINGS OF CHRISTMAS

I hope that all of you had a very blessed and lovely Christmas.  We are so thankful for the precious times that we shared with our children, grandchildren and dear friends these past few days.  We hold, dear in our hearts, new and sweet memories, those very special times to keep.

            Grandma-Ma, Miss Ella & her favorite Elmo  

                    Emerson trying out his new tools on 
                                Grandma-Ma's walls.

     Baby Harrison helping Miss Ella open a present.


At long last, 'Christmas Garden' was finished only two days before Christmas!  My wonderful framer, Donna, had already assembled the frame I chose, and very kindly finished framing it, so that it could be proudly hung for Christmas!

'Christmas Garden'

by Blackbird Designs

This is a truer look of the 'Straw' shade of linen.

I truly loved every minute of stitching this wonderful design!

A close-up view of the frame.

Of course, some of the best gifts that I received were some new stitching designs!

I can't wait to go to my LNS to pick up linen and threads to begin working on these beautiful pieces!  Oh, more decisions to make, and so many more hours needed to stitch all the things that I want to stitch!  But, oh what bliss!

We are supposed to have 6-9 inches of snow tonight, overnight into tomorrow.  Oh what joy!  I love the snow, and what more perfect excuse to stay indoors, all cozy and warm, sipping cups of tea and stitching to my heart's content.

I have loved reading all of your comments, dear friends. Thank you so much! 

Blessings!

JOYFUL CHRISTMAS

'For Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is

given: and the government shall be upon his

shoulder:  and his name shall be called

Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God,

The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.'

(Isaiah 9:6)

We are so blessed on this Christmas Day, and thankful for the joyful celebration of our precious Savior's birth.  

May your hearts and homes be filled with His goodness, hope and love, not just on Christmas, but every day.

With joyful love & blessings!